HARARE – Comedian Samantha Kureya, popularly known as ‘Gonyeti’ of BustopTV was picked up by police officers from her home on Tuesday, lawyers said.

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said they had “deployed lawyers to offer emergency legal support services” to Kureya, who was taken from her Mufakose home by detectives.

In a tweet, BustopTV said Gonyeti had been “taken by the CID for questioning”, it is believed over the political satire that she produces.

Former minister David Coltart said on Twitter: “Her crime is speaking truth to power, albeit in a very funny way. This brutal regime clearly now has no sense of humour and is petrified of its own shadow.”

Jonathan Moyo, another former minister now exiled by the regime of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, said: “When jokes, let’s be technically correct; when comedy, in fact let’s be constitutionally clear; when freedom of expression invites Gestapo visits from Law and Order in an authoritatian military state – which Zimbabwe has become – you must know all hell has broken loose.”

Earlier on Monday, the United States embassy in Harare called on the government to end the “harassment and targeted arrests of civil society leaders”, warning that these actions were “damaging Zimbabwe’s reputation and economic future.”

“We call on the Zimbabwean government to uphold its constitution, protect human rights, and foster an environment where all can contribute to the nation’s progress,” the embassy said.

The statement followed the arrest of Rashid Mahiya, the executive director of Heal Zimbabwe and chairman of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition. Mahiya was denied bail on Tuesday after being charged with treason over the January 14 fuel protests.

Also on Tuesday, lawyers said the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation secretary general Kwasi Adu Amankwa was seized from his hotel by state security agents and detained at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport. He was scheduled to meet trade unionists from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the International Labour Organisation as well as officials from the Ministry of Labour. Authorities intend to deport him, the lawyers said.